“Iron alone wouldn’t do the trick we’d hoped for.” A servant handed him a gilded chalice, scales etched along the cup like a mockery of wings. He swirled it once before downing it in a single pull. Red spilled from the rim, streaking down his chin. “So, we added an ingredient.” He dragged a cloth over stained lips. “Also rich in iron.”
Blood. He just drank fucking blood. AndI’mthe cursed one?
“It took months to track down this particular creature. But well worth it, seeing as your precious curse is now…compromised.”
So, itwasn’tjust in my head.
I blinked, the motion dragging like a dying star. “How?”
He glanced at me, and I wondered if he was debating really telling me. Instead, he only chuckled, “Let’s see how fearsome you are without your poison.”
“Unlock these chains,” Gods, my voice was nearly stripped from me. “Let me show you that it won’t be the Viper that rips your shriveled heart from its pit.”
A sound crept up from his throat as he turned to Elva. She flinched but still looped her arm through his when he reached for her, leading them toward the corridor.
“As I said,” he sneered, “to the dungeons.”
Two guards hoisted me upright, careful hands on my elbows as though I were a live blade. Cowards, even now, when my threats had been reduced to wasted breath.
Chains dragged against polished tile, a hiss of metal on stone. My head tilted, searching for Callum, the scent of blood fusing to my throat.
I couldn’t look at her as we passed. I failed. I failed. Ifailed.
Obrann paused mid-stride, a trace of recollection flashing across his face. One last cruelty. He patted Elva’s hand and she unhooked her arm from his, following a maid out of the chamber.
She didn’t look back. Not at me. Not at Callum. Not at Gemma’s body cooling on the stone.
The pang that struck me was jagged, worse than rage.
Obrann ripped an object from a servant’s hand as he neared. “This was found among her things before you arrived,” he said lightly. “It has your scent all over it. I thought you might want it back.”
His boots clicked in a slow manner until he crouched in front of me. A thumb brushed a streak of blood from my cheek as though I were something delicate instead of shackled and split.
“Your scent is very particular,” he murmured, tasting the word like a secret.
I wanted to scream. To rip out his eyes and fill the sockets with my venom. But I couldn’t move as he held up a ratted ivory blanket, patched,mended, a small piece of home stitched into every seam.
My body shook as he reached out his arm, as if to give it back to me. That alone would have gutted me. What he did instead was just spiteful.
He tossed it past me, letting it collapse into blood. Red crept up through the pale fabric like roots, devouring it whole.
A last piece of me dying, this one with her.
I gagged. Then the taste of bile rose and everything,everythingI’d held together, spilled onto the floor with it.
A laugh chased itself across the room as he strolled away. “I do hope you don’t die down there.” Stopping at the edge of the doorway, he glanced back over his shoulder. “The plans I have for you.”
My reply wasn’t a whisper but a promise. “Chain me, gag me, watch me bleed dry.” More bile rose but I swallowed it as he stilled. “The Viper’s head will grow back.” Even with my face numb, a bitter laugh crawled its way out. “And now that it’s tasted your blood, it will hunt you down.”
Obrann’s jaw ticked, but I pressed on.
“You are not safe. The way Elva hasneverbeen safe. And when you beg, when you scream, when its fangs reach for your throat, it won’t grant mercy, only undoing, until your last pathetic breath.” I smiled. “For it is death, and death fears nothing.”
Swallowing deep, he smoothed his jacket with nervous fingers, branding the image of me into memory before finally turning for good, boots hammering against the stone.
Reve barked a curse at a guard, shoving him aside as he seized my arm himself. His grip was punishing, unfamiliar, digging into flesh gone numb.
My vision blurred, then blinked out entirely as he dragged me forward, into the quiet ruin of my own undoing.
